Working But Poor - The Middle Class in Crisis

The Poison Squad

January 2020 •English

The story of government chemist Dr. Harvey Wiley who, determined to banish dangerous substances from dinner tables, took on the powerful food manufacturers and their allies.

Jagat

December 2015 •Tamil

Set in the early 1990’s, a critical period in Malaysian Indian history, the story subtly underlines the plight of the Indian Malaysians. Forsaken by the estate owners who had employed them for generations and systematically marginalized, they are forced to move to the cities and survive under harsh circumstances. Left out of the nation’s urbanization and development plans, many live in squatters and work at minimum wage jobs…

Biscut

February 2022 •Hindi

Biscut is a powerful film on the state of politics in Uttar Pradesh and offers a gritty and hard-hitting take on the treatment of the backward classes and their never-ending exploitation in the caste-dominated political landscape of Uttar Pradesh.

Der Orient - Wiege des Christentums

June 2022 •German

The Other Pair

January 2014 •Arabic

A poor boy whose slippers are broken tries to repair them while watching a rich boy continuously cleaning his new and shiny shoes.

A Rifle and a Bag

January 2020 •Hindi

Somi is pregnant with her second child. A girl, she hopes. Together with her husband she prepares for this new phase of their parenthood. It means that their son has to go to school, but as an ex-Naxalite that is tough to achieve in contemporary India, where people like them are third-rate citizens. They lack the certificates and an opaque bureaucratic process doesn't help. Directors Isabella Rinaldi, Cristina Hanes and Arya Rothe of the NoCut Film Collective concentrate on Somi's close family ties, painting a portrait of ex-Naxalites in India. Once, Somi and her husband were communist rebels fighting for the rights of Indian tribes. However, to safeguard their family's welfare, they surrendered to the government in exchange for marginal compensation and simple accommodation.

Behind the Make-Up

January 1930 •English

Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown's act and his girlfriend, whom he marries.

De Charles de Gaulle à Emmanuel Macron, les gardiens de l'empire

March 2022 •French

Pursuit of Freedom

September 2022 •English

Inspired by the incredible true story of a woman who was abducted in the night, torn from her children, and sold into trafficking after her husband lost her in a night of gambling.

Fists of Pride

December 2011 •English

Fists of Pride follows Little Tiger and his fellow fighters as their Thai coaches prepare them for the annual Water Festival competition. In a boxing camp on the Thai-Burmese border the children of mostly illegal migrant workers fleeing Burma live and train for prize fights. In a region where combat sports have always been a matter of honor and money, the film reveals their daily struggles. Bets are open and as the hope of prize money rizes, the young boxers contemplate what it could mean for them and their families

Ghost Town to Havana

September 2015 •English

A rampant, street level story of mentorship and everyday heroism in tough circumstances. An inner city coach's son, estranged in his youth from his father, spends five years on ball fields in inner city Oakland and Havana, following the lives of two extraordinary youth baseball coaches, Roscoe in Oakland and Nicolas in Havana. The coaches meet on videotape and two years of red tape later, Coach Roscoe and nine Oakland players travel to Havana to play Coach Nicolas' team. For one week, the players and coaches eat, dance, swim, argue and play baseball together. But when the parent of an Oakland player is murdered back home, it brings back the inescapable reality and challenges of life in an American inner city.

Paint

April 2023 •English

Carl Nargle, Vermont’s #1 public television painter, is convinced he has it all: a signature perm, custom van, and fans hanging on his every stroke… until a younger, better artist steals everything (and everyone) Carl loves.

One Man's War

January 1974 •Finnish

Man leaves his factory job and sells everything to buy an earth mover and start his own business, travelling from place to place with his wife and child. There is not enough work and he is eventually forced to emigrate after many hardships.

On the Way to School

September 2013 •French

These children live in the four corners of the earth, but share the same thirst for learning. They understand that only education will allow them a better future and that is why, every day, they must set out on the long and perilous journey that will lead them to knowledge. Jackson and his younger sister from Kenya walk 15 kilometres each way through a savannah populated by wild animals; Carlito rides more than 18 kilometres twice a day with his younger sister, across the plains of Argentina; Zahira lives in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains who has an exhausting 22 kilometres walk along punishing mountain paths before she reaches her boarding school; Samuel from India sits in a clumsy DIY wheelchair and the 4 kilometres journey is an ordeal each day, as his two younger brothers have to push him all the way to school…

The Busty Doll

August 2017 •Spanish

In a photograph among journalists, writers, academics and artists was a controversial president of Mexico and the unusual guest who owes the name of this story.

Hungry for Profit

October 1985 •English

Is our food bought at the price of famine in the developing world? Is agribusiness more interested in producing profits than producing food? This PBS independent documentary investigates U.S. and European agribusiness in the Third World. Filmed on five continents, it takes a close look at agribusiness, which is turning the world's food supply into a global supermarket, buying food at the lowest prices-regardless of small farmers and local populations-and selling it at the highest price and the greatest profit whenever possible.

Lake Paliastomi

July 1964 •Georgian

Ivane, a Gurian peasant is struggling with social inequality, trying to feed an impoverished family, pay state and rent taxes with extreme physical exertion and timber production. There is little hope for the future.

How Most Things Work

November 2015 •Spanish

Celina works at a remote tollbooth on a desert road, few days before Christmas, her father dies and Celina becomes a door-to-door encyclopedia saleswoman so she can earn enough money to travel to Italy and find her mom.

Les Derniers Secrets de l'humanité

August 2023 •French

Halifax Neighbourhood Center Project

January 1967 •English

Shows a campaign launched in Halifax in 1967 to probe the core of poverty in that city--low incomes, ill health and inadequate housing affect more than twelve thousand people in the central area. The project combines the efforts of local agencies with those of government agencies to alleviate these conditions.